CLAVICYTHERIUM. An upright instrument allied to the horizontal harpsichord and spinet, but concerning which of all that tribe we have the least evidence. Mr. Carl Engel (Descriptive Catalogue, 1874), surmises that ‘a pair of new long virginalls made harp fashion of cipres with keys of ivory,
’ mentioned in the inventory of King Henry VIII's musical instruments, was a clavicytherium. He goes on to say that this instrument had a stop or register to cause the strings to be twanged...
